DENVER — it’s an anniversary that offered Broomfield residents the chance to come together in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Of course emotions are not as raw,” said Sharon Robinson, a former Newark United flight attendant. “Time is the best healer for anything that happens.” Yet, time may never fully heal the wounds, both physical and emotional, for those impacted by the events of 9/11.
“I knew everybody on that flight, so it was really hard,” Robinson said. She worked side-by-side with those who died when United Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field. “Shock, horror” and “intense sadness” stuck with her for a while. On each anniversary, she reflects on that day at the 9/11 memorial at Community Park in Broomfield, where the names of her colleagues and all those who died that day are set in bronze. “We never forget,” Robinson said.
These stones can hold only so many memories. It’s why Sara Farris with the North Metro Fire Rescue District created an online, living memorial: a place where the survivors of the terror attacks can pass down their memories and emotion of that day before they’re forgotten. “People can come, read those stories, see the photos and really reflect on those personal experiences that were tied to this tragic event,” Farris said. It was the first time, the 9/11 memorial in Broomfield will to have had a tribute wall. Communities came by and left notes, tied on flowers and some others a memento. Those items will then be digitized and archived on the online memorial, where experiences like Robinson’s will live forever. “I think Sept. 11 was really a day of reckoning, of maturity for the United States,” Robinson said. “We’ve never had anything like that happen in the US before. Hopefully we won’t again.”
